Spending Review

Asked if the Prime Minister believed the figure of 4 billion of extra savings quoted by the Chancellor, as Iain Duncan Smith clearly didn’t, the PMS replied that the Chancellor had said several billion pounds of additional welfare savings. There was a spending review negotiation ongoing. Put that it could be more than 4 billion, […]

Cardinal’s Comments

Put that a Cardinal who was originally supposed to be accompanying the Pope was now not coming due to comments he had made referring to the UK as a third world country , the PMS said that he hadn’t seen the comments but would look into it. original source.

Andy Coulson

Asked if the Prime Minister’s view of Andy Coulson’s role had changed and whether he still had full confidence in him, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister’s view had not changed and he still had full confidence in him. Asked if Andy Coulson was being provided with legal advice by the Government, the PMS […]

Papal visit

When asked for a comment on whether the Prime Minister thought that the Pope’s visit should be a State visit, the PMS referred people back to the comments put out yesterday afternoon. The State visit had been long established and the Prime Minister was keen it was a success. original source.

Unemployment figures

Put that the trade unions had said that things would get worse, the PMS said that the unemployment figures we saw today were encouraging. We would have to go through a process in the coming years of trying to rebalance our economy to increase the number of private sector jobs. original source.

Phone hacking

Put that the Standards and Privileges Committee had announced the terms of the inquiry into phone hacking and asked if Andy Coulson would be willing to appear before them, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that he had not seen the terms of the inquiry yet; we should wait and see what the Committee said. […]

Spending review

Put that Cabinet ministers had vowed to stand firm against “vested interests” who pleaded for special treatment in the public spending cuts and asked what was meant by vested interest , the PMS said that the point we were making was that over the course of the next few weeks there was likely to be […]

Cabinet

The Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that at Cabinet this morning they discussed the Pope’s visit, and the two summits the Deputy Prime Minister would be attending: the UN General Assembly and the Millennium Development Goals Summit. We would provide a further update once Cabinet had finished. original source.

Policing

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about warnings from a police chief this morning on the possibility of unrest and that cuts could lead to police forces not having the right resources, the PMS said that the Police Superintendent who had been speaking this morning did not say that they were predicting a rise […]

Continuous At Sea Nuclear Deterrent

Asked whether there was a change to the Continuous At Sea Nuclear Deterrent, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that the position was as set out in the coalition document: that we would maintain a nuclear deterrent and that we would look at value for money of that deterrent. Asked various questions about whether the […]